york city -- one of the fir and most successful pilot projects for girls puc public schools wih which i know the presiding officer is very familiar. anand the i remember the time i invited senator barbara mikulski to texas. because she has and i have worked together supporting nasa for so many years, and this year she chair and i am the ranking member of the subcommittee. we went to the space center because i wanted her to see the great work done there. and then i tong her to the houston rodeo because i wanted her to see the texas cull tiewmplet well, i am not sure that the senator who grew up in the inner city of baltimore knew exactly how people would dress at the rodeo. but suffice it to say, there were a lot of rhinestones and cowboy boots and big hair and big hats. senator m mikulski whispered too me during this time, "kay, if we were here monday and we went to the chamber of commerce, would these people look like this?" and i said, "yeah, pretty much." so senator mikulski and i also teamed up to pass the homemaker ira to make sure that hour stay-at-home moms and dads would have